Analysis of Failure of an Uninterruptible Power Supply of Office Building as an Instructional Case Study

Abstract

In the engineering education, along with the instructions via theoretical basis and laboratory and workshop studies, the students should meet with the real life problems in their education period. This provides the problem solving ability to the students in their professional life. The department of electrical education has a course on the determination and elimination of failures in an existing electrical system. The subject is designed as a student centered education in which the student must investigate the possible reason and solution of the problem and report it accordingly. Recently a case of failure of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system is reported. The use of UPS is widespread especially for sensitive equipments to the variation of current voltage. This equipments is used for both as an energy source for the cut offs and as a regulator for the discrepancy. The failure in the system caused a fatal defect to the Isolation Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) on the UPS system. In the present study, the case of failure for the UPS system used in a three storey office building is analyzed as an instructional case study. Anahtar Kelimeler: Failure analysis, Uninterruptible power supply, Power quality, Wiring